Platja de Migjorn
Platja de Migjorn is on the opposite side of the island to La Savina, where the ferries from Formentera dock. But Formentera is such a little place – barely 20 kilometres from head to toe – that it’s still only a 10-minute drive to get there. Greeting you is an unspoilt ribbon of sand, backed by a wooden walkway. Behind it, you’ll find a couple of bar-restaurants, sand dunes, and salt flats. Some tourist shops and a handful of low-rise hotels and apartment blocks do little to mess up the coastline.
Spooling for 7 kilometres along a big chunk of the southern coast, the vanilla-white beach at Platja de Migjorn is the longest on the island. It’s also one of the quietest. A few watersports, sunloungers, plus the odd wooden bar at the water’s edge all make the list, but nothing too heavy. It’s beach life for folk who want to keep it simple – perhaps that’s why the naturists love it so much.
Es Pujols
Less than 10 minutes’ drive from the ferry port, Es Pujols sits at Formentera’s eastern shoulder, with a large, saltwater lagoon at its rear. It’s the only purpose-built resort on the island, but it still manages to keep things intimate. There’s a sandy beach and, behind it, a paved walkway with shoulder-to-shoulder bars and restaurants. Deeper in to the town, the slim streets thrum with souvenir shops and more terraced places to eat and drink.
The beach at Es Pujols is made up of 2 white-sand crescents and turquoise waters so shallow they reach tropical temperatures in summer. Facilities are simple, but there’s everything you might need – watersports, a few beach bars, plus sunloungers and palapas. Elsewhere, the Trucador peninsula stretches northwards from the town. It’s anything but dolled to the nines. What you get is a long finger of clutter-free sands, divided in to a chain of natural white beaches.
La Savina
Step straight off the ferry from Formentera – it’s a 30-minute crossing – and you can drop your bags right away. La Savina is the island’s port and the gateway to Formentera, but it warrants more than just passing-through status. There’s a beach lapped by clear waters, inland lagoons to each side of the town, plus fabulous views back to the bigger Balearics. Elsewhere, most of local life plays out around the busy harbourfront, hemmed by cafés, bars and restaurants, with front-row seats of the boats chugging to and fro.
The whole area around the harbour feels elite, thanks to the yachting crowd that drops anchor in the marina for a summer of R&R. Like the locals, they’re attracted to La Savina’s beach, which has Caribbean-style credentials. Because mass building is banned, it’s clutter-free, punctured only by rustic beach bars and ramshackle huts. Sand dunes, meanwhile, provide privacy for the nudist crowds.
La Savina is 3 kilometres from the island’s capital, Sant Francesc. Here, pedestrianised streets lined with shops and bars wind their way towards the central square where local craftsmen sell their wares in the shadow of the town’s 18th-century church. Elsewhere, the waters surrounding the island are popular with boat owners and there are loads of excursions that leave from La Savina’s port headed for private coves and beaches.
